I joined Mechanical Turk back in 2008 pretty much because I needed some extra cash and this seemed like a simple way to get that. Several years ago, I was an assistant manager at a national chain pharmacy. The economy (in this state) had begun to go downhill way before the rest of the country started to feel it. Anyways, as an assistant manager, I was making $14.00 per hour, which is pretty good considering (at that time) I had no college degree. That company decided to fire all of it’s assistant managers and replace them all with newbies making only $9.00 per hour. In our district (approx. 10 stores) 25 of us lost our jobs. Thinking that everything would be OK and I could get a new job in no time at all, I began my new job search. The days without work, turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. 2 YEARS constantly job searching, with no LUCK whatsoever. My applications and resumes were constantly denied due to the fact that I made “SO much money” at my former job. Employers just kept telling me, “We can’t match the pay that you were getting at ——-. We’re sorry.” I finally got wise to that. I started leaving the “What were you paid?” section on the applications blank. I started getting more phone calls for interviews, and when asked what was I making, I would simply say, “I don’t want what I was being paid at ——. I simply want a paycheck. I don’t expect you to match what I was paid.” I ended up getting a job making minimum wage, flipping burgers. My job search has continued throughout my employment at this HORRIBLE fast food company, with no luck at all. So….after all of that, I did some research on “work at home” jobs to try to compensate for some of my lost income. And Mechanical Turk came to my rescue.